The Lost Line
by SotF
Summary: When a fleet engaging the True Sith under Revan is damaged, the heroes of the Old Republic come face to face with a new war in a new Era. The Clone Wars have only just begun...
1. New Time, New War

**Note:** The basic idea for this came while thumbing through the copy of the KotOR sourcebook when the Clone Wars episode Rookies was on. That left me with the idea of working out a method of placing Revan, the Exile, and friends in the Clone Wars era when I noticed the information on Relativistic Shielding and the effects of what damaged shielding can cause. Then came the idea of how to fit everyone together that I wanted to include.

As such the major changes to the universe start (Beyond the existance of the fleet being sent after him) with HK being present in the fleet sent to find Revan and the Exile (Rather than ending up stranded on Mustafar), Vandar was not present on Katarr (He was still in contact with the Jedi there via hologram when the Nihilus attacked) having forced Revan into letting him accompany him, and the other Jedi who traveled with Revan had been ordered to do specific tasks along with the other party members from KotOR. Both Brianna and Mical traveled with the Exile. Beyond that, there may be other minor things that may pop up at a later point.

Also the A'denla Ad is not an official name for a ship class, the ship type is a real Mandalorian ship class, just one without an actual designation. On Wookiepedia, it is listed as looking like a Venator-class Star Destroyer, but it's class has yet to actually be given. Thus I came up with one, the name is Mando'a and translates as "Vengeful Son"

I am also distinguishing two specific types of Basilisk War-Droids. The first is the standard combat one, using a droid brain and a single pilot while the other is the version shown in KotORII.

* * *

_**Message Priority:** Alpha Red_

_**Source:** Admiral Carth Onasi, 115th Expeditionary Force, Inexpugnable-Class Cruiser "Pride of Telos"_

_**To:** Admiral Cede, Citadel Station, Telos_

_**Code:** Alpha-One-One-Niner_

_**Title:** Emergency Alert_

_Cede, the mission has seemingly been a success, T3's report panned out and we have located both Revan and the Exile._

_However, the good news seems to end there._

_We were wrong, there is a Sith menace out here, Revan was right about that. Most of the fleet is damaged and the remainder is suffering hyperdrive problems due to an unstable fluctuation between a local event and our relativistic shielding._

_The Sith are trapped now, unable to follow with their forces annihilated, but they're still hiding out here. T3 apparently had kept the files from the Star Forge, or at least some of them, and with Boa-Dur's help constructed something they call a Resonance Torpedo, something the Rakata developed during a war with a race they call the Architects, in order to trigger a supernova._

_Repairs are impossible for any ship with a biological crew and thus we must accept that if, no when, we return to Republic space it may not be the same Republic we left for this job._

_I'm sending this to you because I trust it can be passed on to those who know how to deal with it._

_We are setting out course for the closest friendly planet, Rishi._

_Origin point for course interception is as follows..._

_May the force be with you._

* * *

"Unknown contacts," yelled one of the officers as Carth blinked at the sight now in view while the ship exited hyperspace.

"Broadcast the standards," the admiral ordered while glancing around the well of his flagship, "Bring us about to face, order the fleet to do the same in a covering formation."

A moments pause, "Request Mandalore to move into a support position with his A'denla Ad, if they turn hostile, we should be able to hit the shields enough for his ships missiles to finish the job."

"Sir, they're powering weapons, and we're getting a signal."

"What's the message?"

"They're demanding that we surrender," came the response, "For some reason they're referring to us as Republic Trash..."

Another officer yelled from his own position, "Detecting weapons fire on the planets surface mainly originating from what seems to be the location of similar signals to what's coming from those ships."

He grimaced, "Transmit information to our Sith ships, this'll be close."

Revan had left his most trusted men behind when he had tried to force the Republic to prepare itself for the real Sith threat, those ships had joined them in their attack to contain the menace before it could expand, and only seven out of the force survived, a single Centurion Class leading a half-dozen Interdictors, but they did add more firepower to the mix of Foray and Hammerheads that made up his command beyond the Pride's command abilities.

"Rev," he commented as the doors opened behind him and the familiar steps of many of his closest friends joined him on the command deck, "It seems just like old times, we seem to leap from firestorm to firestorm trying to stay alive in order to pull off a miracle or two in the end."

"We're getting a transmission from Mandalore's ship."

"What?"

"You're son does seem to have some spunk after all," came the grim and yet friendly chuckle of Canderous Ordo, now turned Mandalore, "He insisted on joining the idea my men launched."

"What did Dustil do?"

While he and his son rarely saw eye to eye, not to mention that the boy still refused to actually enlist while continuing involvement in the skirmishes, the boy had tagged along with the Mandalorians on the trip.

"Sir, multiple Basilisk launches detected."

Carth froze.

"He wouldn't..."

* * *

In a boarding action of the type they were pulling off, one of the attachments, as it were, for the Basilisks was of no use. When deployed against ground troops from orbit, or against any where their orbital insertion abilities could be used, they often had an attached anti-personnel rocket designed to attach to the underside and fire when the retro's were triggered, mainly as a way to clear the landing zone of hostiles underneath.

However, the mountings for the weapon were always in place, and the rails normally had few uses beyond their intended one due to such a placement.

In null-gravity with no need to survive re-entry, on the other hand, the combined force had come up with something far more creative, as the Confederate forces found out a few moments after the wardroids slammed into the hull, the massive claws allowing the warmachines easy positioning upon their prey.

The droid response teams scrambled through the labyrinth of corridors to the nearest airlock to exit and confront their unexpected foe, only to encounter the airlock already cycling and backed off to take up covering positions around the compromised one.

They had little warning for the nearest Basilisk to unload the entire magazine of its Shatter missiles into the adjacent segment of the hull.

Unprepared for the attack, and with only a few droids still functional enough to observe the almost beastial device extend its belly near the floor and watch dark metal forms rise, the metallic gray forms rising as one when their hands released their unfeeling grips before rising as one, pale blue photoreceptors flashing on as they all seemed to respond to an unheard question as one being.

"Statement: HK-51 unit Aleph has been deployed, unit is eager to proceed and cause unrestricted damage to hostile vessel."

One of the B-1 series guards managed to make a comment while the electric blue wave of power that signified their foes having mounted shields.

"Oh sithspit!"

* * *

"Dustil?" he heard the voice of his father over the comms in his armor, a suit of Mandalorian armor that he'd begun to use as a way to distance himself from what was the life he had believed was for him.

"I hear you," he responded a moment later while dropping from his own position, releasing the harness from its moorings upon one of the Basilisks and waited beside the still venting hole in the Lucrehulk, the bursts of blaster fire the defenders were dying off as the HK's finished securing their beachhead, the magnetic boots producing a loud thump on contact with the deckplating, mere milimeters from the sparking cables still live through the insertion.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, the plan was to tag along with the battalion of sociopathic junk piles and get some answers before they wreck the place."

* * *

"With the Basilisks engaging the enemy ships in orbit," Revan mused while watching the displays, "We're going to need to do something else on the ground, at least to figure out what's going on down there."

"What do you suggest?"

"I'll take a small force down to the surface," the smirk audible as the former Jedi and Sith turned to exit the command well, "I'll take the Hawk down."

A brief nod from the admiral, "Atton can fly it, other than him, who are you taking?"

"HK and Bao-Dur, that should make sure we can figure out just what the hell is going on here."

"Hey Rev," he heard one of the others he had left behind to prepare for the coming Sith, Mission Vao yell, "Are we definately ont he right side here?"

"Whether or not we're helping the right side is not the issue," he stated while leaving, "The Republic is what we sacrificed for then, and I'm not going to repeat the actions that created much of the mess to begin with."

The automated doors shut behind him an instant later.

"Well," came a tired voice from an even older human, "That was depressing."

"Jolee," the twi'lek commented, "I think it's more because he's still got issues."

* * *

Canderous Ordo watched the battle with an eerie calm, the initial forays were comparatively simple measures, though with the combat Basilisks already deployed, he would be forced to leave the ground battle to the Republic and Sith forces.

A moments pause as he watched the familiar orange and white shape of the Ebon Hawk exit the Pride and head towards the surface.

"Mandalore," one of his men stated, "Lord Revan is heading to the surface, what are your orders?"

"Launch the Davaab's," he answered calmly, "And prepare the Basilisk transport."

A quick nod from the Neo-Crusader.

"I need two volunteers to accompany me to the surface," he stated while heading for the doors, "Listen to Onasi's orders, we swore to follow Revan to the beyond and back, we aren't losing him here."

"Yes Mandalore," he nodded, "Permission to accompany you."

"No, your expertise is needed here, I need an able captain for the ship."

"Mandalore, the enemy fleet has deployed fighters as have our allies."

The mix of Aureks and Sith Interceptors joined their own Davaabs in the melee while the two fleets continued to move into position for the coming slugging match.

"Pass information to the Pride, inform Revan I'm on my way."

* * *

"Is there a reason for the Sith armor?" the iridonian asked as he adjusted the helmet again.

Atton smirked behind his similar armor.

"Yes, Rishi's atmosphere is not the best for long term exposure," Revan stated from his position behind them, "Plus the armor is insulated against the chill there unlike most of the Republic armor."

A brief pause as the barrage of weapons fire lanced up at them from what looked like a landing craft of some sort.

"Not to mention that it makes things a bit easier with retaining a comlink signal with Carth," the Sith continued before a familiar presence brushed his mind.

He glanced back down the corridor to the cockpit and grinned, "You might as well come out, no point in hiding."

"Yes," the wizened voice of an even more ancient looking JedI Master responded, "And I was not hiding, merely deciding how to accompany you on this new quest of yours Revan."

"I had believed that you would be attempting to contact Coruscant Master Tokare."

The being chuckled slightly, "I simply do not wish to let the Republic of this time know of us before we have the facts of our situation."

"I'm unsure what we should be doing, the force is our only real guide," a pause as the ship shook from a hit, "Or at least it was until they started preparing to attack us."

"Revan, as with everything concerning those gathered under your banner," Vandar Tokare stated, "Things are bound to become more and more complicated with each passing moment."

"At least you didn't decide to invite yourself via a stun grenade this time," the former Dark Lord of the Sith commented.

"Hang onto something," Atton yelled, "This is going to get interesting."

* * *

Bastila focused, feeling the mind of the exiled general matching hers as they both entered the meditative state.

Battle Meditation was a tool, and a powerful one, granted to only a few by the force, and it was one that did not simply add the power of multiple users working together, it multiplied the effect.

Mandalorian, Republic, and Sith warriors would all gain the benefit they could provide, while their senses linked their forces together in unity towards a single purpose.

From Carth in his position commanding the fleet, to Dustil leading the charge through the enemy ship, to Revan preparing to begin the ground assault unknowing of the Mandalorian backup about to join him in the mission, to the fighter squadrons roaring into their dogfights, they were there.

* * *

Sasha grimaced as a blast came close to hitting her Davaab fighter, the Mandalorian craft rocking slightly with the near miss.

However, she didn't scare easily, and the fact that she survived the destruction of the Dantooine Enclave while awaiting her father.

The fact that the attack had left her an orphan anyway made it even harder, it was what came later that had guided her. And the Mandalorians that came later took her in, and unlike the ones she had first encountered, these ones were different.

She recognized the voice of the one who slew Esok and followed him, Revan had saved her once, and she followed one who followed Revan. Now she was a part of the fight, and seeing what she had dreamed of.

A Sith Interceptor covered her wing as more of the odd fighters poured out of the enemy capital ships, taking out three of them that had angled in on the combined squadrons.

* * *

"Atton," Bao-Dur asked as he glanced back, noting only the constant menace of HK-47's glare and the odd presence of the miniature Jedi master, "Where's Revan?"

The former Jedi Hunter blinked, "I've got a bad feeling about this!"

* * *

Revan relaxed into an almost trace state as the boarding ramp opened before him, the empty sky and swirling winds all that was insight before the distant ground far below.

He released a breath and dashed across the cargo bay, picking up speed before diving into the void below.

A moment of perfect calm before the force warned him to react, reaching out with one of his gauntlets to snag the top of a Vulture-droids wing, using it to arrest his momentum while the crushgaunt tore thought he cheap armor with ease and the shriek of rending metals.

The fighter spun, losing control and corckscrewing wildly as Revan landed in a crouch atop it for a half second.

Falling deeper into the guidance of the force, Revan leaped again, a trail of wires still tightly grasped in the hand. His evacuation of the mobile perch a mere fraction of a second before the unstable and out of control craft slammed into its wingmate.

When the cable snapped tight, Revan held firm and pushed with the force, arcing to the right and letting the chord entangle itself in the walker shift mechanisms before releasing it and launching himself upwards again.

Stretching out into a dive as he crested the upwards path, the former Sith Lord passed easily between blasts of cannon fire directed his way before landing on the attacker.

The force surged as he reached out, forcing the craft to fire its energy torpedoes while it swerved and shook, trying to dislodge the stowaway and staggered through another pair of fighter, eliminating one of them while the entangled one he'd damaged earlier finally slammed into the ground in a iridescent fireball rising across the horizon as a miniature sun.

Rising, the knight pushed all the power he could into a strike, driving one of his crushgaunt empowered fists through the top of the machine and smashing the receiver guiding it, shrapnel slicing into the fire control systems and arming the remaining torpedoes.

Revan reacted in a flash as the last of the six that pursued the freighter into the atmosphere opened fire, the detonation of his last mode of conveyance giving him far more momentum that before as he rocketed towards the fighter the ground now in clear view as it dove and the wielder of the force landed.

With a surge of the force, he pulled one of the other tricks up his sleave and disconnected his boots from the magnetic boot soles that attached to his armor while overloading them, amplifying the pull as he kicked off mere meters from the ground.

The magnetic flare was enough to change the trajectory of the fighter from an escapable one that it had planned for letting the C-9979's defensive guns to eliminate its boarder into a collision course with said landing craft.

Lord Revan landed in a casual crouch a fraction of a second before the two spacecraft collided, the fighter bypassing the armor in its course and plowed headlong into the droid deployment bay before slamming into the reactor while vainly attempting to change course or slow down.

A pulse from the force cleared the landing pad with a 350 degree shock wave as his lightsaber slipped into his hand.

Revan had landed.

* * *

Hevy grimaced as the pain shot through him.

With his injuries, there was no possible way out

The blaster burns made it hard to move at all as he tried to look for the detonator.

"Do we take prisoners?" he heard one of the clankers ask when the facility shook violently and several of the lights and consoles lost power while others dimmed.

"Uh oh," another of his enemies stated when the roof collapsed ontop of them, a vaguely familiar crafts landing struts having smashed the droids leaving him to wonder just what the hell was going on as it opened revealing three havily armed and armored figures.

"Bralor, Kelborn," the silver armored one in the middle ordered his flanking guards which were wearing bulkier armor in gold and crimson respectively, "Fan out, we need to know what the crink is going on here."

"Yes, Mandalore," both responded in a fraction of a second while the leader slipped a repeater that partially made him jealous.

What the hell were mandalorians doing here, and they didn't look like the Cuy'val Dar on Kamino.

* * *

"Sir, the signal from the planet has stopped," one of the droids stated from its position on the bridge while a momentary flash of fire followed by more signaled the death of one of the two droid control ships in the fleet, the other was still relatively intact, but was having difficulties repelling boarders.

A low growl escaped the speaker attached to the throat of the cyborg monstrosity overseeing the fight.

"Signal the remainder of the fleet..." he paused as yet another of his ships went down in a blaze of glory, he was impressed by the newcomers the enemy fleet was relatively underpowered as far as he could see it in the power of their guns and shields, but they could take a beating and had the sheer numbers to shred his forces, "...Evacuate, our mission has failed."

The entire plan had hinged on being able to take the listening post quietly, and the handful of untrained and raw clones stationed on the Rishi moon should have gone without a chance to warn the republic before they made their strike at the heart of the 'Grand Army' of the Republic, Kamino.

Now that these fools had delayed him long enough to apparently flatten the transmitter, well, there was no point in continuing the slugging match with what had to be a bunch of outdated craft from some outer rim worlds fleet that was phasing in new ships.

However, the recordings from the sensors scared him as he replayed the images of one of the more insane warriors he stood against take out a half-dozen fighters while in freefall before the signal cut out with the last fighter and the droid lander colliding in mutual destruction, but that was a survivable height from the last leap.

Alarms began to play as more ships seemed to exit hyperspace directly behind them.

"Sir Republic star destroyers have entered the system!"

* * *

Dustil grimaced as he followed the call of the force, using the blast cannon he'd retrieved off of one of the droids his troops had mowed down on their way towards the core.

Since his experiences on Koriban, he'd rarely bothered to touch his lightsaber, but left it in its place on his utility belt.

"Aggravation: These tin cans do not seem to be on the flamable side."

A slight shudder at the machine that had stuck with him since the attack on the Sith worlds, the most recognizable visually of the machines due to the forced repairs needed after it set itself on fire at one point.

HK-51 unit six hundred and sixty-six, the pale orange of its photoreceptors a product of the factory blue ones being partially melted when the machine was surrounded and decided to use a flame projector on a stack of adjacent fuel drums rather than be defeated and the flaming pyromaniac merrily switched to melee weapons and charged its living foes while cackling insanely.

If the young Onasi didn't know better, he would have considered that his father had ordered the maniac to protect him although Revan did give him the raving psychotic.

While HK-47 was a sociopath, at least the rust red droid was relatively controllable, the HK unit he was stuck with had found billions of ways around the simplest orders to do whatever the hell it felt like at the moment, and more often than not, that meant that the thing was setting something on fire.

"This way," he stated to the droid, "Prison cells are this way, while the rest of the attack force takes the ship, we can probably find some answers."

"Excited Statement: Of course master, if nothing else it will mean more meatbags to test a new definition in my internal dictionary."

Dustil shuddered, but spoke before he could stop himself, "Definition?"

"Statement: I believe the term you meatbags use is Barbecue."

The due stopped as Onasi spotted the section before him and the force cages inside.

"This is Dustil Onasi with the boarding force," he stated over his commlink, "Deploy a medical transport for pickup, the situation is bad here."

"Understood."


	2. Moments Until Forever

"Who are these people?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asked the clone commander over the holocom.

"Other than the admiral in charge of the fleet saying that he's a Republic admiral," Cody responded from his position in the medical bay of the Pride watching Hevy in one of the tanks of what he assumed was bacta and Fives being patched up from his blaster burn, "And the mandalorians I really don't have a clue beyond the fact that a bunch of them are carrying lightsabers."

Yes, the Jedi General considered, that was rather unusual.

"I've been told that the one in charge is called Revan, though they seem to refer to him as Lord Revan," the clone continued, "And he seems to be competent, the only observation of his actual skills involved him taking a flying leap out of a moving tramp freighter to take down a half-dozen droid starfighters and a lander before landing unharmed."

"Impressive."

* * *

Carth was relatively annoyed by the current events. They had lost nine ships in the encounter, taking just over half that number down in exchange as well as capturing one relatively intact but even less mobile than the rest of the fleet.

The remaining ships were now carrying more crew than usual, survivors from the wrecks had been rescued as quickly as possible while discussion with the new fleet that had apparently ended up in the hands of the most cantankerous being in the fleet.

He still wasn't quite sure if they had gotten anywhere in the actual conversation beyond introductions and Jolee's stories.

Then there was the fighter situation, their own fighters had achieved superiority thanks to the fact that they were heavily upgraded due to T3's copy of the Starforge's databanks. The problem was that the hangers were now overloaded on most of the ships leaving only a few that actually be launched if they encountered more complications.

On top of that there was what information they had gotten out of the soldiers picked up from the surface.

From the descriptions of the Republic it felt almost like they left and with them went the Republic's sanity.

Slavery was being stamped out, the few holdouts in the Republic being in cases dealing with situations that began with a massive debt.

However, even with the laws against the owning of sentient species, the Republic had created what amounted to an army of clones that were essentially told to fight for the Republic or die.

Carth had dealt with dozens of things during his time, from the bombardment of Telos, the quest for the Star Forge, finding Dustil, trying to prepare the galaxy for the threat that Revan saw, dealing with the near endless wars.

But now to find that he wasn't even sure if the current Republic may not even be worth fighting for, well that was something even worse to feel.

On top of that, he was dealing with crew members getting more and more anxious about their situation and seeing what happened to their friends and families, not to mention the few that commented that they were now owed several thousand years of back pay.

Then there was the more immediate problem leading up to something that he just knew would be a horrific idea.

He needed a translator to make sure things went over easily, unfortunately pretty much their only choice on that front was HK-47.

Oh, and Canderous was insisting to accompany the team going to meet this General Kenobi aboard his ship.

Revan, Vandar, HK-47, Mandalore, and himself.

Not a workable diplomat among them...

* * *

Anakin Skywalker stood back, something about the name seemed familiar to him, but he just couldn't quite place it.

Revan, something from his life back on Tatooine.

Then the memory came and his jaw dropped.

Anchorhead, he'd heard legends from the Jawas and talk from others who came from there about an ancient Jedi who was the reason the Sandpeople avoided the place.

"Master, I think you may want to hear this."

* * *

Admiral Carth Onasi was more relaxed than he had been for the past several years.

A part of him truly hated being put in charge, to him, being a pilot was the first part of his abilities and was damn proud of that. However, the various wars had ended up putting him smack into position as the Admiral of his own fleet in order to do what had been asked of him.

The Ebon Hawk still felt right in his hands, the small freighter behaving as he remembered.

It felt like the good old days, traveling the stars on an epic quest to save the Republic, or at least stop it from being crushed by a lunatic.

Canderous was seated beside him while the Jedi and the droid were back in the lounge.

He just hoped the sociopathic droid could keep its mouth shut when it wasn't needed, they didn't really have the forces for another shooting war, and their supplies were already on the rather low side.

* * *

Obi-Wan was glad that the Clone Commander was back, if for no other reason than it meant less work for him to cover.

However, other problems were just starting.

Yoda was en route, apparently with Senator Amidala, in order to figure out just what the hell was going on.

Then there was Anakin and his comments about legends from the sands.

Of course, they still had the problem of setting up more direct contact with the fleet, and hopefully getting whatever intelligence they got from the droid control ship they'd taken.

The tramp freighter had settled into position within the Venator-class star destroyer, the soft hissing as the ramp lowered to reveal one of the strangest groupings of people he'd ever seen.

* * *

Revan straightened from his relaxed position at one of the seats aboard the Ebon Hawk, memories of the time spent aboard her awhirl in his head, but placed aside for the needs of the present.

"Statement: Master it is clear that we outgun and outnumber these meatbags, therefore why not simply eliminate them?"

He groaned slightly, moaning into his hand as he remembered why he'd left the droid with the Hawk on its trip back to Republic space.

"HK," he stated, "These are possible allies, and we don't have enough information about just what the hell has happened to the Republic."

He paused as he headed towards the boarding ramp, the familiar presence and footsteps of Carth and Mandalore just behind him while the softer padding of the Jedi master was right beside him.

"And HK," the twice knighted being added after a shiver went down his spine, "No threats to them, or anything hostile, we do not want to start a fight here."

"Exasperated Query: But master..."

"No, we don't need to start an unnecessary fight, do I have to dig out that module the general found?"

"Pleading: No master," a brief almost sniffling pause, "I will behave."

* * *

Vandar was back in his element as he accompanied the other leaders of the fleet.

He considered how he'd ended up in his current position.

As a Jedi Knight he had been on the front lines in the frantic battles with Exar Kun and his forces of the fallen. He remembered killing those he had trained with and studied beside while watching others fall by the blades of their friends and family.

He had known both of the leaders of the Sith at that time, and had known them both as heroes and villains. Nomi Sunrider, as well as both her deceased husband and daughter, had been friends. Once even fighting alongside the venerable Thon of Ambria, even spoken at the Tchuukthai's funeral.

His own talents were in planning and was also exceptionally gifted in receiving visions. Unfortunately, while his rise to mastery was meteoric, the council he'd been stuck with was far more disappointing. They would argue and whine over what he said, twisting it into something entirely different and applying it seemingly on a whim to whatever situation came up.

Near the end of the Mandalorian Wars, the main council had finally given in to provide aid and he did what he could providing aid and advice when he was able, letting those trained to command the armies as the final arbiter of the fate for good or ill.

Being corralled into aiding in the the only one of those close to Revan to return being exiled because of their fear, he almost despaired.

But he was tired of the constant bickering of the council, and chose to retreat to the Dantooine enclave and teach at the end of the war, saddened by Revan's desire to leave, but a part of him felt that the man needed to find peace, and the Republic was not where it could be found for the troubled soul.

Vandar had little choice but to watch as the others decided to make Revan into their puppet, even then he could feel how wrong they were in doing such a thing. Revan was abandoned by their ignorance before, and it was only because he had taken that teaching to heart and been betrayed once more that he would be made into their pawn.

But the Sith had proven to be stronger of will than the others had hoped, becoming the symbol of the force itself.

Yes, Revan's actions had shown him a secret about the force that his fellows had only feared. The force itself was neither light nor dark, but the beings using its power were corruptible not by the force, but by the power they took from it without the traits that made them Jedi.

And he had watched many rise in the ranks that did not have the moral fiber to be there, and he partially blamed himself for allowing it.

With the decimation caused by Exar Kun and the war that followed, they didn't have the numbers to be picky about who was there, and results in battle spoke more than the training and wisdom one had picked up.

Those in power would not lightly give up such power, and while capable warriors they were not all the best choice as leaders.

And then there were those who wanted to change things to their own whims, a prominent example being Atris and her desire to shred the code they followed and remake it as they wished it to be.

After Adi's death, Atris led the charge to begin restricting who could be trained, stating that it was the fact that they were not trained from their childhood that Exar and Ulic had fallen.

To his disbelief, others listened then, and their actions then led to his decision to join Revan in returning to the fleet he had been supplying as a rearguard against the menace he saw the warrior prepare to face.

In the end, it was that decision that saved him from Atris' betrayal of the Jedi, calling down a deadly foe that slew many of those he still viewed as brothers and sisters leaving only the scattered remnants from the ashes of Katarr.

The familiar words of the Code he had followed, passed through his thoughts.

_Emotion, yet peace._

_Ignorance, yet knowledge._

_Passion, yet serenity._

_Chaos, yet harmony._

_Death, yet the Force._

* * *

Canderous smirked slightly as he followed Revan.

He'd been keeping secrets for some time now, and the one that not even Revan held a clue about concerned the leader of their forces most of all.

When Revan had left to lead the guard against the True Sith, he'd left a sample of his blood. It had been the key to the storehouse where the man had locked up the helmet that now named him Mandalore.

But there was another use he'd put that same sample to.

Something about Revan had always bugged him, something familiar and the DNA gave him the hint.

Hell, that witch, Kreia, had even confirmed it for him.

Now he was the sole keeper of Revans origins, and had yet to figure out how to explain them to the man.

His attention switched to the two Jedi waiting in the hangar bay of the Star Destroyer, the somewhat comforting sight of them wearing the same form of robes that those he remembered across the galaxy .

The odd looks from the armored forms of the clone troopers, at least that's what the ones in the Pride's medical bay had called themselves, had a vaguely mandalorian look in how they carried themselves as they all seemed to turn from their various duties in the hanger and watch as the party descended from the Ebon Hawk.

* * *

Sareth Dorn grimaced at the ruined hulks of ships, both from the fleet and from the enemy they had encountered.

She would let Revan deal with this version of the Republic that seemed just as war torn as the one she remembered, but her own mission couldn't wait.

They had taken one of the hyperdrives off of a smaller ship within the captured cruiser and used it to bring one of the long range shuttles back into working order while updating their charts where they could.

"T3," she yelled from her position at the controls, "Is everything ready?"

The whistles that came in response got a grin from her.

"General," she heard her iridonian companion state from the back, "The navicomputer has finished extrapolating the variables for the systems we need to get to."

At least, she figured, without Atton flying this bucket of bolts they weren't likely to get shot down.

"Set course for Dxun," Sareth ordered as she relaxed at the controls, "Dustil, make sure we're rigged to be able to contact the beacon."

"Roger."

Mandalore and Revan had left backup plans as a contingency to their losing against the True Sith, now those same plans could reinforce their own forces.

They had followed Revan's plan of taking planets and removing them from the databases with the aid of the HNG. Now they had to see what was left of the armies, weapons, and other resources scattered about the galaxy.

"Punch it."

* * *

For those that knew him, the biggest thing that stood out about Revan was his ability to plan. When a plan failed, you could be sure that there was at least backup plan with a dozen or so contingency plans after that.

Bastilla had been uncovering the interlocking web of plans for the off chance that Revan had failed in preparing the Republic with his war, not to mention the ones on the chance that they then failed themselves. On top of that were the later plans involving the strike on the True Sith, and even some for the chance that the Star Forge was destroyed.

Where many assumed that most of the Mandalorian equipment was destroyed after the Mandalorian Wars, she had discovered entire systems wiped from the record containing them in seemingly endless stockpiles for the off chance they would be needed in the apocalyptic wars he saw as approaching.

Hell, Sith equipment alone included three actual shipyards with stockpiles for centuries of production.

And all of it hidden, something she'd discovered after finding Revan once more, then leading the charge of his Sith against the True Sith.

Then there was the other mastermind in their forces, the Utility Droid was just as bad. During the assault on the Star Forge, it had apparently decided to have the facility build it a new body with its technology and transfer into it. This created more mayhem with T3-M4 containing nearly all of, if not actually all of the database of the Rakata.

She hadn't even suspected until Bao-Dur and the droid built a system killing superweapon out of scrap.

Part of her wondered if either of the two had plans for their current situation.

* * *

Anakin Skywalker watched the group cautiously, it had been a habit that was becoming more and more necessary since the war broke out.

Oddly enough, it seemed that, of the newcomers, the most heavily armed were the armored figure ii what seemed Mandalorian armor in design, but unlike any he'd ever seen, as well as the strangely menacing droid, who seemed to be a twisted and some how dark side infused version of a protocol droid.

The one in a uniform was the admiral of the fleet they were dealing with, and the other two carried lightsabers though held themselves in very different ways.

While small one looked sort of like Master Yoda or Yaddle, his age was apparently far more kind to him, save for the fact that his hair left only a few scattered wisps of pale white on an otherwise bald head. However, at the same time he got the feeling of a coiled spring that held the capability to strike hard and fast if riled.

With the last, something unnerved him about the armored form walking with a calm and yet powerful stride. It was an odd feeling to feel his sheer presence through the force, a seeming pillar of calm amidst the ripples and waves he could always feel in the force.

* * *

Deep within the bowels of the Mandalorian missile ship, Sasha continued working over the surface of her fighter.

Across the cavernous hanger, the mix of fighters was apparent, even to the point of her own being flanked by a Sith Interceptor and a Aleph-class Fighter, not to mention the intermingling gaggles of fighter pilots and astromechs mixing with the techs and maintenance droids working to prepare every fighter for launch that they could on the off chance that another combat situation would come up.

Distantly, she could see the heavy transport that had been commandeered for transferring the hyperdrive from one of the enemy craft they'd eliminated to replace the damaged one of the A'denla Ad.

Until they could get a resupply, the ship was of little use beyond deployment and retrieval of craft.

It was a sacrifice for the design, the ship was armed with a large number of rockets and missiles, but it gave up the ship to ship canons. Essentially, it let the ship do a lot more damage early in the engagement in exchange for having nothing left after that, though its complement of smaller craft could continue the fight, and the rest of the fleet it was intended to deploy with could keep the momentum that the warhead barrage could begin.

Now, on top of that, they had other problems.

While they'd had casualties, there had been far more devastated ships in their fleet, not to mention the survivors of the ships lost over the preceding campaign and the battle with this Confederacy.

But she was a fighter pilot, not one of the officers who would need to figure out just how to keep things working, and she had no notion of ever trying to become one.

Just the simplicity of the sky and her fighter.

* * *

"Dustil," Canderous stated slowly as he surveyed the hangar deck of the star destroyer.

"I read you, boss," came the self assured response over the comms network, "Cameras working just fine."

It was a simple setup with the gear already in his armor, transmitting everything he saw back to his ship. It wasn't that he distrusted this so called Republic fleet, well, actually it was that he distrusted them.

They hadn't given him much of a reason, and with the Jedi in charge, well he had reasons to distrust the Jedi Order.

After what he learned they did to Revan, not to mention the poodoo concerning General Dorn, well, they had a lot of ground to cover before he'd trust without a second thought and backup plans of his own.

"You do know that Revan's doing the exact same thing," came the comment from the younger Onasi.

And here he was starting to think their leader was going soft.

The only 'normal' Jedi that he was willing to trust was the diminutive Jedi Master, someone that he'd heard stories about in his youth. During the wars where they fought alongside the Sith under Qel-Droma.

Of the rest of the force using forces, none of them really considered them to be part of the Jedi Order as it was, and no real inclination to remain in it afterwords.

The Senate was responsible for a lot of that.

Atris had become a recurring problem, something that was partially their own fault it seemed. They had left her behind when heading to Malachor V, and she fell further and with no being that she would trust to help her remaining there, she continued her descent adding a feeling of betrayal by Sareth in abandoning her.

It was only during the war with the True Sith that he'd finally figured it out.

Atris had apparently fallen in love with the Jedi general and that was the key for why she fell.

She'd felt scorned by the one she wanted as a lover, and then shifted the blame for the decision to exile her to the rest of the council, leading to the events at Katarr.

A nightmare that continued when she managed to usurp control of the refounding Order, apparently being the last known Jedi Master had let her do it.

Those Durn left to train the new Jedi were marginalized.

That dream was over, the new Jedi were left to follow the same path that had ripped the order apart before it.

However, the dream had been reborn for the Exile among the fleet Revan had waiting.

Those who followed Yuthura Ban in her exodus from Korriban, those that had been convinced by her and Revan had joined him in reinforcing the vanguard fleet harassing the True Sith.

No longer were they the Sith Apprentices, nor were they Jedi.

They had also joined the Mandalorian forces in becoming something entirely new, adding the acceptance of the Clans to their own mix of training and a willingness to adapt that the Jedi had seemed to have lost after the reformation post Exar Kun.


	3. Encounters

**Note:** Sareth Dorn is the name I'm using for the Exile in this fic, it's a name that came from the earlier stages of the first KotOR.

* * *

Well, the armor of the supposed honor guard in the hangar bay was well polished it seemed. Unlike the armor the Republic of his time used, the shiny materials seemed bright and almost garish, not to mention they seemed to use them wherever they deployed as it was fresh armor of the same type as what the soldiers they'd retrieved from the Rishi moon.

"I believe this is your show," Carth muttered under his breath, knowing that Revan would hear it.

Revan grinned behind the mask for a split second, but never gave a hint of that moment of mirth that could be seen upon the armor and robes that were uniquely his own.

It had evolved with him as he faced war with the Mandalorians, armor went a long way in keeping him alive. The Mandalorians wore armor for a damn good reason, and so did he.

The masks development was longer, starting during battle to take control of a comet the Mando's were using as a listening post. He needed a rebreather and one of the troopers had taken a holo of his attack.

He wasn't quite sure how that image ended up in the hands of the holonet news, but it made him consider a permanent version and from there he'd added to it.

The Mandalorians had little thought about a Jedi leading the forces, but when he became a symbol rather than a man to them. The faceless Jedi Crusader who would do whatever it took to stop them, the man they saw became a legend.

It didn't help that very few of the exploits the galaxy spoke of were exaggerated much.

* * *

"Lord Revan," Obi-Wan said as he stepped forward across the flight deck, receiving a bow from the figure before him.

"That would be me," the armored form answered while stepping forwards in turn, reaching a hand out.

"My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi," he responded reaching out in turn, hands clasped for a moment on the others wrist and a moment where he assumed their eyes met, "Jedi General of the Open Circle Armada."

The diminutive Jedi seemed to chuckle at that comment, "Revan, now for your titles."

With a groan and a glare between the two newcomers, Revan began.

"If I must," he sighed, "I'm Crusader General, Lord Darth Revan."

A moment as Obi-Wan blinked trying to figure out if what he heard was correct.

"Jedi Master, Sith Lord, Supreme Commander of the Allied Fleet, Warmaster of the Mandalorian Forces, Champion of the Republic, and well..."

He glanced at the smirking man in uniform beside them, "And what else did I miss."

"Several, such as Guildmaster of the GenoHaradan, swoop champion of the first circuit, and..." the mans grin grew a bit before the small Jedi cut him off.

* * *

"Leave me," Palpatine stated as he placed the hologram faded.

The two guards nodded and stepped out, very quickly and in the perfectly ordered step that spoke the discipline he preferred.

As the doors slipped shut behind the blue armored figures, he reached down and pressed a sequence of keys before the holoprojector fluttered again.

"Tyranus," he asked, "What is it about the General's last mission that went wrong?"

"My Lord," the Count responded in an instant and a bow, "I assumed that the Republic ships in orbit of the Rishi Moon were your doing, though the ship classes are unknown to me, Grievous is still on his way back."

"With his tail between his legs no doubt," Sidious commented as he turned to face out the window to the streets, "My own information on it is spotty at best, only that they claim to be lost and that there is an Admiral Onasi there."

"Onasi," the noble mused for a moment, "I've heard that name before, though I cannot place where."

A moments pause before the thoughtful look passed, "There was one other name Grievous spoke of from my end, a Lord Revan."

"Now that is a name I have heard in passing from my own master," the Sith Lord commented, "This bares investigating, contact me with your report when your General makes his own."

"Yes, My Lord."

The image faded behind him as the supreme chancellor turned back to his desk and retrieved a small black pyramid from a hidden compartment.

Placing it before him and a form began to appear in the gloom while the lights dimmed at his command.

"Tell me of Revan."

* * *

Onderon and Dxun seemed to be ageless from orbit, Sareth mused as the small craft exited hyperspace into the sliver of space between the world and its moon.

Images of the side effects of their final battle with the Sith before heading for the Republic was still fresh in her mind.

It was a trap, a reminder of the Battle of Malachor V, the entire Sith Fleet was engaging their entire force as the weapon was readied for launch within the Nebula that housed all but a single colony of the hidden Sith Empire.

They had only intended to destroy the star of a single, uninhabited system, but the destruction didn't stop there.

The shockwave did something as they entered hyperspace then with a mere fifth of their fleet still intact, the others lost either in the preceding battle or in the supernova itself as the detonation was far quicker than they had prepared for.

They transited back at the meeting point chosen beforehand after a nightmarish trip, the ships seemed to have almost shaken themselves apart, and they had lost a third of the surviving ships during that trip.

The engineers did what repairs they could, but low on supplies and time due to the detection of a rapidly accelerating wave of destruction from the destroyed star forced their hand and they couldn't repair the relativistic shielding that tied them to normal space and thus time dilation effected them.

Members of the fleet were still attempting to calculate the exact passage of time between their entrance into hyperspace and the exit, for them it was two days of travel though.

"General," Bao-Dur commented from his position at the sensors, "Code sent, we've received the coordinates for the next hop, Yalara."

"Not bad, hows the beacon network holding?"

"Little data, it seems the main network hasn't been used since shortly after our time."

"Can you get a date from our calendar?"

"No General," the Iridonian responded, "The Beacon Revan left was powered down until the signal triggered it."

"Then we have no reason to remain here for the moment, prepare for jump."

"Yes, General."

* * *

He was annoyed.

Jolee Bindo had been cooped up aboard starships for far to long to be his friendly old self, but Revan left him behind aboard the ship.

Sure the former Jedi could see several reasons why the man had done so, but he was bored out of his mind. Then his friend had to do something even more aggravating and put him in charge of the medical deck full of this "republic's" soldiers found in the hostile ships wards.

Of course, to make things even worse, Dustil had asked that maniac of a droid that followed him around to keep tabs on those rescued.

The distant, and grating voice seemed to rip through the air from across the medical bay.

"Exclamation: Now you to have the joy of being able to juggle thermal detonators!"

He was beginning to think that accompanying his allies on their mission was an act of senility on his part.

"No I don't want to try it with live thermal detonators," came the screech of Hevy an instant later.

Mad metallic cackling echoed.

Perhaps there was a test for it that he ought to get for himself while here.

* * *

He was working hard, nearly a dozen screens flashing in front of him as he worked through the data.

"Zuka," a familiar voice yelled from down the hall in the engine room, "You done yet?"

A brief pause.

"We need to work out how to get this damn thing working with out navicomputer."

"Hold on a moment Kex," he responded, "Working through the database we recovered."

"Database?"

"Yeah, got Dustil to bring the ships computer core back with him, setting it up for analysis and then I can help."

A sharp bang followed by a series of curses.

"Damn it Kumus," Kex yelled, "Get that thing off Davrel!"

"What happened?"

"Damn fool dropped the scrap on Davrel's leg."

A brief pause.

"Finished up here," Zuka muttered preparing to move.

"Would you mind checking something before heading down?"

"Sure, what?"

"What's the current status of the clans?"

"Let me check."

He worked quickly, only a few moments giving commands.

"Kex, you may want to get Mandalore up here to see this."

"Is it that bad?"

"Worse."

"Now that, cannot be a good thing."

* * *

Tomb like silence filled the hanger of the ship and Obi-Wan Kenobi tried to work his mind around the words the man before him said.

If it weren't for the images he'd seen from the base, his first instinct would have been to call him crazy.

He was a Jedi, or at least Jedi trained, but to claim both Jedi and Sith titles, not to mention other titles never given since the distant past.

Genoharadan was a name he had heard whispered recently, always tied with mysterious deaths that made no sense and shared no seemingly normal cause, but it seemed to be the relics of an ancient superstition.

Then there was the First Circuit, that he knew for other reasons.

One of the few reasons he'd been able to occasionally drag his Padawan to Dex's Diner for something beyond the usual temple fare to eat when stuck planet side on Coruscant for longer periods was the various races, and the First Circuit was full of the swoop racers that even Anakin, the only human podracer to ever run the Boonta circuit, called insane.

With pods, it was rare to have fatalities, but the swoop tracks that those lunatics used had to use as much skill in surviving the course as a pod racer did in winning, and then there was the actual winning on top of that.

Then there was the mere presence of the man, something he had only once remembered experiencing.

The man radiated the same power constantly that he remembered flowing around Dooku and Yoda in their duel on Geonosis. The force seemed to simply exist rather than lurk, as if he was a part of it.

And from that same recording, this man simply did what he would never have thought possible in an attack that he'd have viewed suicidal on his way to the ground, taking out most of the Separatist landing force in a single maneuver.

It was madness to contemplate the sheer control and strength of the force that would take, and yet it did.

"General, what information can you give us on what happened?" the calm and almost familiar voice of the one that looked so much like Yoda said, the inflection of the voice bringing forth the same instinctive reaction all of those who began their journey towards mastery in the temple would and jerked straight.

Only for an almost sheepish shrug when his mind forced him to realize that it wasn't who his brain had thought it was.

* * *

The world seemed to shimmer into existence before them as the signal was sent.

Sareth's eyes widened as the things in orbit came into view.

The primary stockpile of equipment was elsewhere, but this was a system listed as being the nerve center for the forces left behind, but this was insane.

She had seen the holos of the Battle of Rakata Prime, and the form from it seemed manifested on the scans as a response of activation came from a point near the star of the world they had reached.

He had another of the artifacts stored here.

Revan had planned for everything, even the loss of what had been the primary production facility for his forces.

With a backup.

"General," Bao-Dur stated, the tone more like a stammer to her after working with her companions for so long, "In the planets orbit is something I remember seeing somewhere."

Her eyes turned and she blinked once more.

It couldn't be.

During her training in the order, she had seen the recordings of that type of ship.

"The Corsair?" she managed to whisper while staring at the seemingly impossible craft waiting there for Revan to return.

What in the Force did Revan see that would need that kind of firepower at his disposal?


End file.
